''This article is about repute in [[web service]] settings. The term reputation is usually assumed to be an equivalent, but has rather broader meaning.''

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''This article is about repute in [[web service]] settings. The term reputation is usually assumed to be an equivalent, but has rather broader meaning. '''Stigma''' usually means negative repute, '''honour''' means positive repute.''

'''Repute''' is [[value]] associated with some [[identity]]. It is really an [[ethics]] concept that becomes visible as a measure of [[social capital]]. In general there is no such thing as bad repute, if the identity can be discarded or changed, as it can in almost all [[troll]] situations. If one has a repute one wishes to discard, one simply discards the identity and starts over. In [[wiki management]] this is called the [[right to vanish]], and is a key issue in both [[surveillance and governance]] of especially [[large public wiki]]s where there are very often many [[users in conflict]]. Lack of this "right" can lead to [[social exclusion]] in some circumstances.

'''Repute''' is [[value]] associated with some [[identity]]. It is really an [[ethics]] concept that becomes visible as a measure of [[social capital]]. In general there is no such thing as bad repute, if the identity can be discarded or changed, as it can in almost all [[troll]] situations. If one has a repute one wishes to discard, one simply discards the identity and starts over. In [[wiki management]] this is called the [[right to vanish]], and is a key issue in both [[surveillance and governance]] of especially [[large public wiki]]s where there are very often many [[users in conflict]]. Lack of this "right" can lead to [[social exclusion]] in some circumstances.

Revision as of 22:21, 30 August 2004

This article is about repute in web service settings. The term reputation is usually assumed to be an equivalent, but has rather broader meaning. Stigma usually means negative repute, honour means positive repute.

Some think that because negative reputation is so hard to make stick to anyone, and because positive reputation enables so many abuses and is easily distorted or constructed by falsehood, the whole concept of reputation is negative and only enables those capable of promotion regardless of any values. Others think that this can be managed but only when reputation itself is always negative, and no one can ever have a good reputation (i.e. reputation is expressed as zero or some negative number, a score on the identity). This kind of question is basic to social capital and trademark issues.

Reputation is basic to civilization and may be just as disputed a concept. Interestingly, while to civilize often gets critical attention as a process, as it might imply imperialism or colonialism, "civilization" itself as a concept rarely or never does, and is almost always assumed to be a good thing. Likewise the word reputation is assumed good and evokes stability in ways that repute does not, the latter being associated with verbs like reputed which imply uncertainty. These are subtle but key differences:

Complicating this is disputes about the desirability of reputation itself. Trolls tend to believe that all reputation is bad, that having a "high" or "good" reputation just implies groupthink is in effect and that someone has taken advantage of it, and that it is more heroic to remain anonymous (but still traceable).

Ad hominem approval is often required to be accepted as a de facto practice in running large public wikis. Because to keep a certain level of integrity withing the GFDL text corpus information coming in from previously unknown sources or authors must in practice be screened more carefully and systematically. This carries risks of systematic bias (process) or systemic bias (group affinity problems) but seems to be inevitable when only volunteer labour is relied on. There is never enough. It is not clear that a truly efficient pipeline to treat all contributions equally is possible. In political party circles this is also a major problem. often ignored as in politics as usual

Edits by new or untrusted users (see New Troll point of view) are often attacked without reason or for ideological reasons. This often leads to responses by troll organizations. Paradoxically, cooperation between the trolls, even on the patroll level, implies that there can be such a thing as positive repute. In all such systems, the new user necessarily lacks it, regardless of prior achievements anywhere else, or any credentials or skills.

Contrast wiki best practices like the Lowest Troll role, which makes the assumption that any conflicts between users necessarily lowers the repute of all involved - thus whoever is involved in all disputes by default is "Lowest", and there is no assumption of any positive repute at all.